Category Archives: Volunteering

I’m not going to say that if Obama dooesn’t win reelection, I will definitely move. But if some of the more extreme candidates win, I’m definitely going to consider it. My husband is a UK citizen,so when I fantasize about where to move, my first thought is England. There is also the possibility of Scotland or Wales. We can realize my retirement dream of running a B&B fifty years early, (since I don’t really want to go through more school to be able to practice law) and maybe rescue corgis.

At our B&B, we shall serve a proper high tea and quite possibly run a small-scale restaurant that serves plenty of vegetarian English specialties like vegetable lasagna and vegetarian pies, and a lot of locally sourced and humanely raised meats. We shall have a monthly Cheese Feast in which we sample many kinds of cheese in many kinds of dishes. I think the B&B shall be in the south of England, where cider is quite popular, and if our guests wish it, we can arrange for them to go on tours of the local Cidery. We shall purchase many acres of land so that my parents can’t come build a house right next door. I will learn to speak proper British and stop talking about pants.

Will you join me? Or perhaps you would like to join me instead in contributing money and time to any candidate in this election cycle that doesn’t hate science and poor people?

I was at a party recently and talking to a fellow attorney. Who, when I said that I was working as a law clerk, responded with, “oh! so you’re not like, working as an attorney at all?” With a “that is just so sad for you” look on her face.

My response should have been, “go screw yourself” but instead I yammered politely about how I felt that I needed life experience and private practice experience and I wasn’t really interested in starting my own firm straight out of law school, especially when I went K-JD. I also pointed out that I don’t have debt, which is the number one thing that changes the tone of the conversations I have about my job search. As soon as people find out that I don’t have debt, they go from asking why I’m not taking just any job available to me to why I’m not volunteering somewhere until I can get my dream job. (Because even if I don’t have debt, I still don’t have a money tree in my backyard. I would like to have children and a house and a retirement account, people.)

So I just wanted to go over a few things you should not say to under or unemployed lawyers.

1) “Oh! So you’re not like, working as an attorney at all?” No, I’m not, lady, and it bothers me way more than it bothers you, so why would you bring it up at a party?

2) “Have you heard of Idealist.org?” You mean the job search engine that’s gotten me half of my internships since I started college? No, what is that?

3) “Have you thought about starting your own firm?” I can guarantee you that there is not a lawyer in this economy that hasn’t thought about starting their own firm. If the one you are talking to hasn’t yet, don’t push the issue. Also, maybe we shouldn’t encourage brand-spankin’-new attorneys to go into private practice and risk their licenses quite so much?

4) “So is your husband supporting you?” Seriously, why the eff do you care how my family puts food on the table and shoes on our feet?

5) “Is the market really that bad?” I graduated magna cum laude and am working as a law clerk. Yes, it’s that bad.

6) “You would have made a great law clerk. Why didn’t you do that?” I dunno. Why don’t you go ask the judges that didn’t hire me?

What have you heard? Any other things I should avoid saying to people who are on the market?

Yesterday, I went to my old office for The Last Time. I turned in my keys. I will be back, I’m sure, but at the same time, I’m not sorry to go. I’ve been split between my volunteer work and my job for awhile now, and it will feel very good to really focus on my job and my job search for gainful, full-time, grownup employment.

There is something about clearing out of a job that is exhausting. You have to go through countless clients, assess their cases, scan everything, file everything, shred anything unnecessary, and make sure that there are adequate notes in case you ever get sued. Some clients are bound to fall through the cracks – the notes won’t be as thorough as they could be, a client who never called back to schedule their final appointment must be contacted, sometimes mistakes are found and must be corrected.

But nonetheless, I have turned in the files I was carting around in the trunk of my car, I have cleared out my desk, and I feel good. I stayed at my old job longer than necessary, considering I stopped receiving a paycheck back in May, but I have easily fulfilled my pro bono hours for the year, I’ve gained a lot of really valuable experience, and most importantly, I’ve helped people who would otherwise not have gotten help.

I have some really bitter moments, and I’ll admit that one of them came right around when I lost my funding, and a number of friends were undertaking incredibly intense physical challenges – training for marathons, triathlons, and cross-country bike rides. With these friends came the inevitable requests to donate to their causes. Which, for certain organizations, also includes donating to their airfare and hotel stays – which to me, sounds like I’m being asked to fund their vacation in the name of cancer research. I know this isn’t true, but remember, this was a low point for me.

So I very nearly sat down and wrote out an extremely pathetic request for donations to support my job, which would have read something like this:

“If you donate to me, I will not run a marathon or put myself through some kind of powerful physical challenge. I will instead get up in the morning, put on a suit, and go to work. Where I will work very hard, where I will see up to 7 clients a day, all low-income, inner city seniors, many of whom have had very hard lives and deserve a break, like free legal services and knowing that their assets will help support their children and grandchildren, freedom from creditors and debt collectors, and assistance navigating the legal and financial world.”

It strikes me as interesting that nobody has come up with a non-profit version of Kickstarter, in which the current class of over-educated and under-employed people solicits people they know directly for help with their salaries. I think it could be called Grantstarter (although there seems to be already an organization with this name). This might seem like a terrible idea, but I hear a lot of, “I wish there was something I could do to help you.” Which I sometimes wish I could respond to with, “if you donate $10 to my Grant on Grantstarter, it will help.” Not everybody can help me find a job. Not everybody can give me a lot of money. But it would give people like my parents an avenue to donate to my job, without just slipping me money whenever I see them, and they would know that the money went directly to my salary.

So the questions are: 1) does this service already exist? and 2) does this sound like a good idea? Would you donate to my Grantstarter page?

Although I have a new job, I’m continuing at my former job for one to two days a week. This is because I really like what I do there, and I like my clients, and my new job doesn’t actually technically let me “practice” law.

Here is the problem with working for free. And I find that this is true of pretty much any place where I have worked for free. You get taken advantage of. I’m not sure whether this is because the type of people who work for free are generally nice people who want to help out, or if employers really think, “lets get whatever we can while she’s here”. But over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been seeing more clients, when I was supposed to be seeing less, and getting roped into more cases.

For some, being taken advantage of is par for the course, part of paying your dues as a young attorney. But most of those people get paid for the work that they are doing, they are just being asked to do more. And I’m not talking about going above and beyond, I’m talking about being asked to do things that are outside of your job description.

Lately, in addition to being taken advantage of, I have been feeling a bit…abandoned and ignored. I think I established that I’m a bit needy. Mostly, I need supervision. I want to run all of the wills I draft past my boss, because two heads are better than one, he’s been doing this for longer, and I miss stuff. Sometimes I don’t think of things that should go in, or I forget to take something out. I can only catch so much on my own, or when I review them with clients.

Part of the reason for the abandonment is totally legitimate – we are in the middle of a huge case, that is incredibly intense and takes up most of my boss’ time. So he was out all day today on discovery while I ran around the office like a chicken with my head cut off trying to draft a “quick” special needs trust (they do not exist.) Nonetheless, part of the reason is because he can leave me to my own devices, and I’ll keep showing up and doing good work, since so far, I haven’t given him any reason to doubt that. Last week, I made a pretty big mistake though, and unfortunately but fortunately, that has finally gotten me back on his radar, with promises to sit down and go over my open matters. So hopefully that will happen so I can feel like I’m on solid ground.

So I need some lessons in getting what I want, without making a huge mistake to get it. Any tips on how to approach this without rocking the boat so much that it falls over? I would like to preserve a good relationship with the office and my boss, because I do genuinely like it and them. I also want to keep working there, because every day that I work as a lawyer is another day closer to the “3-5 years experience” that most of my dream jobs require.

As you may know if you follow me on Twitter, last week, my boss realized I was “dangerously close” to the end of my funding. As in, over it. So, yeah, that happened fast. Yes, we should have kept a better eye on it, but nonetheless, it is what it is. And more importantly, I knew it was coming so I shouldn’t be as surprised and bummed out about it as I am. It turns out that suddenly becoming unemployed again is actually worse than being unemployed the first time, because when you tell people, they say things like:

“Isn’t there more funding?” Hmmm, let me just check the office couch cushions.

“Well, at least you got really great experience.” Yes, yes I did. In the three months that I worked at this office. Which still doesn’t amount to much on a resume, unfortunately.

“Do you think maybe you’ll look for jobs in [nearby city]?” Considering the last time around, I applied to about a million jobs in [nearby city], yes, I’ll be looking for jobs here, there, and everywhere.

“Think about all the stuff you’ll get done!” Listen, again, people, I’ve played this game before. Unemployment is not productive. I get more done when I work a full day and come home and do things in the evenings than when I take a full day off. Which is why I’m still volunteering.

Really the only acceptable responses to this situation are, “dude, that totally sucks” (or variation); or “would you like some wine?” Or perhaps, “now at least you don’t have to wear suits everyday!” [Which may or may not be my reaction.]

I was expressing to a friend’s wife over the weekend that I really like working with the elderly because, among other things, they genuinely appreciate me. Well, most of them. Sometimes they scream at me just because I went to law school and know more about the law than they do.

But one thing that I have learned is that I really need to be thanked by my clients. This might seem silly, but I make about as much as a waiter, and I spend at least an hour with each my clients, on average. My job takes an incredible amount of patience, patience I don’t have in any other aspect of my life. And I have that patience with my clients because I know they need my help. I know that they are one of the most vulnerable populations, and that they don’t experience a lot of kindness in their lives in our city. But at the end of the day, I also know that they leave my office feeling better; feeling like everything will be alright, or at the very least, they will be treated fairly and they got their story told.

I spent an hour and a half with a woman explaining to her that her dentist office, in fact, did not overcharge her, and did in fact do her a favor. I added up the numbers for her, pointed out her bill, explained everything. Even though, at the end of the day, she owed $100 more than she thought she did, she thanked me profusely. And after she thanked me, I didn’t even mind that I’d devoted an hour and a half of my time to helping her. So it helps keep me doing my job, knowing that I’m appreciated.

People that call my office and yell at me, people who feel that they are entitled to my services, they do not endear themselves to me. They are my least favorites, in fact, and if I have to pick between clients, I’m gonna pick the one that thanks me at the end of the day. I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do. One of my professors told me that I should in fact, not expect a thank you from clients, or let the lack thereof affect my work (which I do agree with). Her general attitude was that pro bono attorneys should treat their clients no differently than paying clients, and therefore, not expect to be thanked.

My general attitude is that there are many, many, many very real differences between a pro bono attorney and a paid one, and that along with clients who regularly miss appointments, are happy to wait to see me when we’re running behind, and call me to ask them for help with non-legal problems like their cable bills, I think that clients should thank attorneys who don’t charge them. I generally think that you should thank anyone who helps you, whether they charge you or not, and that you should especially thank people who don’t.